Newbie here ... ! Basic Questions

PlainTom · Oct 5, 2023

Hello all ... is any body still out there?

We just acquired a 2017 FFE to use as our 'around town' car, havinf recently turned in a leased 2020 Chevy Bolt EV Premium after driving it for ~3 years. Our other car is a 2023 VW ID.4 ProS AWD. So, after the Bolt & the ID.4, getting the FFE feels a bit like back-revving from Windows 11 to Win7.

We're confident the car will serve its intended purpose. But we've gotten used to seeing certain informational elements concerning battery status, usage, and charging data that we can't seem to find in the FEE displays.

For instance, we're used to seeing how many kW are coming into the battery when charging; we're used to seeing an estimate of remaining capacity and a Guess-o-Meter estimate of range in miles at all time. We see something called Budget which purports to indicate available range, but the logic escapes us.

Do we need simply to rely on our own arithmetic and frequent charging in our garage, or have we overlooked useful features?
Also, is the FFE similar to other EV's in communicating much detail thru its OBD2 port such that can hook up a tablet to collect the type of info we're hoping to see?

Cheers!

davideos · Oct 6, 2023

You can get some of the basic information summarized on the screen left of the speedometer. Use the top left steering wheel controls to get the display to show battery and usage data and then you can use the up and down on the steering wheel controls to get a display that shows a good amount of detail: power consumed by climate control / other, battery percentage, a graphic showing instantaneous consumption per mile with a white bar across showing where you need to keep your consumption to get the range indicated.

Battery percentage is on the infotainment screen. I think the 2017 has a different version of sync, so I can't help you get to it, but it is there.

Information is available via OBDII and you can get Forscan on your phone and a Bluetooth OBDII device to see battery voltages, current draw, charge current and so-forth, but I don't think there is very little commercially available to help display that information conveniently. I think some here have made the effort, but I don't find it beneficial to me. The left display is sufficient for me.

PlainTom · Oct 7, 2023

Thanks very much. We're using the display you mention, which I agree is helpful. I don't find a State Of Charge (%) figure anywhere. Since we don't know how the figures its miles of range estimate I'm not sure how to assess its accuracy for our driving habits. So seeing the actual battery data could be useful.

My assumption is, that for local, off-highway driving, using the 'L' shifter setting will be best, and that the Guess-O-Meter range estimate can be relied on.
Does that seem reasonable?

Anti_Climax · Oct 9, 2023

On Sync 3 there is a "charge settings" applet near the end of the applet screens. It contains go time data as well as SoC and estimated charge time for L1 and L2. I don't know if anything on the car itself that will tell you the current draw while charging, but I can say that in AC it ramps up to about 29A if available and stays there until it's a few percent from full. The mobile app may still be able to tell you, but it's been hit or miss for everyone.

For the left screen, there are multiple views you can choose and modify. My personal favorite is one that shows accessory and climate loads on bar graphs to the left, a Wh/mi gauge that shows the current value as a line, the session average as arrows to the sides, and a blue highlight to show what Wh/mi it's using to estimate the remaining range on the next gauge over.

You can get a pretty good estimate of SoC from comparing the level againt the markings of the Wh/mi meter next to it. It's got the 4 major divisions outside and each has a half split inside.

You can see below that it's estimating that 191miles assuming around 150Wh per mile. Knowing that, you can correct whatever estimate is giving based on info you actually know. That will dictate how reliable the estimate is. If you have a trip destination set, the highlight around the gauge will show the average energy use you can have and still make it to your destination.

The D or L selection won't really change the amount of energy you recover from regen, just the rate - higher load for a shorter time or lower load for a longer time. So just go with the one that suits your driving.

PlainTom · Oct 10, 2023

Thanks much, Anti ... very helpful!
Nearly all of the driving we've done so far has been at 70mph, so our usage is well over 250 wh/mi. But I do like the precision of that stat, and wish I could find an equivalent from our ID.4!
Cheers!